1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus, a server, a method and a tangible machine-readable medium for processing and recognizing a sound signal. More specifically, the present invention relates to an apparatus, a server, a method and a tangible machine-readable medium for dynamically processing and recognizing a sound signal.
2. Descriptions of the Related Art
As sound detecting technologies develop over recent years, a variety of sound detection applications have also been generated. Generally, in sound detecting applications, detected sound is categorized as either a normal sound or an abnormal sound. A normal sound is a sound that can be normally ignored by people, such as the noise from cars, talking, and music that may be heard on the streets. An abnormal sound is a sound that easily grabs a person's attention, such as a scream, a fire alarm, or a cry for help. In cases where sound detecting applications are used for security and monitoring, the detection of sound can help the security personnel take further actions.
In practice, a sound detection application may also be combined with the increasingly widespread use of wireless networks. FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional sound detecting system 1, which comprises a sensing apparatus 11 and a server 13 that are connected to each other via a wireless network. The sensing apparatus 11 is configured to sense a sound signal 10 in the environment and to transmit the sound signal 10 to the server 13. The server 13 then retrieves a sound feature signal from the sound signal 10 and compares the sound feature signal to a plurality of sound models pre-stored in the server 13 to determine whether the sound signal 10 is abnormal. In this way, a real-time response may be made with improved flexibility.
Since the sound detection system 1 is implemented by a wireless network, the bandwidth of the wireless network will have significantly effect on the real-time response. More particularly, when the sound signal is sensed, the sensing apparatus 11 of the sound detection system 1 transmits it to the server. However, the sound signal usually represents in a large data mount, which means that the relatively long time duration or large bandwidth will be occupied to transmit the sound signal from the sensing apparatus 11 to the server 13. When the wireless network has a poor quality or a limited bandwidth, the sound detection system 1 would fail to make a real-time response, and the accuracy of determination made by the server 13 on the sound signal will be degraded.
Accordingly, it is important to effectively eliminate the impact of the wireless network quality on the real-time response of the sound detection system and to improve the accuracy of the signal.